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War in the Heavens
Event History Aeons before the dawn of man, the gods were born to watch over the burgeoning universe. These deities were born from a single origin, known as the Cradle of the Gods, and although each represented a different discipline and would ultimately spawn different cultures, there was harmony among them and they lived in peace, working together to carefully build and craft the universe. But peace is rarely permanent, and the chaos god Set was unsatisfied with peace and calm. His power was limited when level-headedness prevailed, and he was covetous of more strength than he was party to during peacetime. So he began to sow discord, poisoning some lesser gods and turning the pantheon against one another. As the gods became more distrustful of one another, lines began to be drawn with alliances forged in secret and retribution sworn against others. Set watched, pleased with his work as the stirrings of chaos began to gather just below the surface, and yet he still hungered for more. So his plans became more ambitious. Opening Salvo Before long Set realised that all-out war was the only way his hunger for chaos would be sated, and he knew that there was a way he could incite violence while evading suspicion. He stole the spear of the Norse Allfather Odin and used it to murder his own brother Osiris, dismembering his body and scattering it between the different groups of gods, secreting the spear away for himself. The gods who would go on to rule Egypt turned on the Norse gods, declaring the murder of Osiris an act of war. The Greco-Roman '''deities sided with the Egyptians, while the '''Slavic gods stood by their Norse brethren, and the battle lines were drawn. Set watched from his hiding place in the shadows, little knowing that he was being watched himself by Prometheus, a trickster who had his own intentions within the conflict. In the opening days of the war, Horus and his army mounted a small incursion against Asgard, severely injuring Odin's son Baldur and stealing much of their gold before retreating to Sky, their fortress above all. Odin retaliated by turning the desert to glass, a petty act which only served to infuriate the Egyptian gods. Main Conflict Now the War in the Heavens had truly begun, and raged across the universe. It was fought on multiple fronts, with many sides staking their claim to dominion over the cosmos, although the conflict centred on the bitter rivalry between the Egyptian and Norse gods. It was during an all-out attack on Duat, the Egyptian underworld, that a peaceful envoy of kami hailing from the realm of Takamagahara was killed in an offensive strike by the Norse-Slavic gods. The kami, previously choosing to remain neutral in the conflict, declared war on both sides: the Norse-Slavic gods for mounting the attack and the Egyptian-Roman side for failing to protect gods who were only bringing peace. A devastating opening assault by Hachiman cut a swathe through both the Norse and Egyptian sides, and the conflict would only become bloodier from there. Battle of the Tricksters As the war raged, Set grew more powerful as the chaos surged around him. He walked across battlefields, soaking in the power of violence and terror, and smiled as energy coursed through his veins. He finally had a taste of true power, and he only wanted more. But Prometheus had been watching Set for many years, and planned to trick him. He offered Set an opportunity to cause real chaos by stealing fire from the gods and releasing it into the universe, a sacrilegious act which would anger the gods even further, while removing one of their great powers. Set could hardly pass up such an opportunity, but Prometheus wanted something in return. He told Set that he wished to hold the Allfather's spear in his hands, to feel its power before showing Set the secret of fire. The chaos god agreed to his terms, and went to retrieve the spear from its hiding place, but little did he know that the spider-god Anansi had followed him, and alerted Prometheus. The trickster's trap was sprung, and he restrained Set in chains of unbreakable iron. Then he showed the evidence to both Odin and Horus, hoping that the discovery of the true culprit in Osiris' murder would put an end to the war. But the cause of the conflict had moved far beyond this by now, and Prometheus was forced to watch in horror as Odin's adopted son Loki crept out of the shadows and murdered Horus in cold blood. Odin took Set and imprisoned him in the depths of Hel, and abandoned Prometheus as an enemy of Asgard. Final Days As time wore on the gods became more aggressive and more desperate to end the war decisively. In a dangerous move, the Slavic god Svetovid tore open the gates of the Greco-Roman underworld Tartarus and unleashed the Titan Kronos, who threatened to tear down Olympus and shatter the very fabric of reality itself. Such a threat shook the surviving gods to their core, and deities from all sides of the conflict mounted an attack on the Titan. The battle lasted many days, but they were ultimately able to fell the mighty creature, an uneasy peace falling across the fields as he died. Looking around in the quiet after the death of Kronos, the gods realised the toll their war had on the universe. They saw the starways bathed in blood, the broken and shattered bodies of their own kin littering the ground around them, and the fabric of reality weakened by Kronos' attack. Truce In the bloody battlefields, the gods knew that they would never settle their differences. But they also knew that they could not continue to wage war on each other without risking the fate of the entire universe in doing so. A group of Seers came together from a range of pantheons, and told the assembled gods of a vision they had shared. A dark, apocalyptic vision of fire, blood and darkness that would come to pass if they continued down the road they had started. And the Seers also offered a solution to the problem of too many gods with too many agendas. Ultimately the gods agreed to exile. They would separate themselves out into their own individual Realms, pocket dimensions sealed away from the rest of reality. None of them would remember the war, and none would have memories of the other pantheons for fear of conflict breaking out once more. They would have influence over the mortal realm, but only through worship and never through direct contact. They would all be prisoners, but the universe would be safe. Aftermath Some centuries after the gods removed themselves from the mortal realm, the deities from across different pantheons saw an opportunity to increase their influence on Earth, when a young woman known only as J'Daa looked through the walls that separated their realities and witnessed all the gods. After five days and five nights of communion, the gods imbued J'Daa with a portion of each of their power and she became Pantheon, the living embodiment of the gods on Earth. She would be the one to combat the darkness and death that the Seers had foretold, and she would go on to become one of the world's greatest heroes. Realms In the aftermath of the War in the Heavens, each pantheon was sealed away in its own separate realm. Some of the many realms that now existed apart from the mortal realm were: * Asgard - Home of the Norse gods, including the paradise for fallen soldiers known as Valhalla and the land of the dead known as Hel. * Olympus - Home of the Greco-Roman gods, including the underworld hell-dimension known as Tartarus. * Sky - Home of the Egyptian gods, including the underworld realm of Duat. * Vyraj - Home of the Slavic gods, including the underworld of Nav. * Takamagahara - Home of the Japanese kami. There are countless other realms, each home to a different breed of deity.Category:Events